Rain delays crunch US Open clashes

A tight clash between Andy Roddick and Juan Martin Del Potro was postponed due to rain at Flushing Meadows with the players just a point into a first set tie-break.

In a day where all the major matches were interrupted by inclement New York weather, the home crowd were denied the opportunity to see whether the 2003 US Open champion could reach the quarter-finals in his final tournament.

The quarter-final match between Maria Sharapova and French 11th seed Marion Bartoli will also resume tomorrow with the latter leading 4-0 in the fourth set.

Fourth-seed David Ferrer of Spain eventually beat France's Richard Gasquet 7-5, 7-6, 6-4 in a match that spanned nearly eight hours due to persistent rain delays.

Ferrer improved his career mark against the 13th-seeded Gasquet to 8-1.

"We almost had to start over two times in the match," said the 30-year-old Ferrer, a five-time winner on tour this season. "It took a lot of focus."

It also took a lot of effort in the final game for Ferrer to end the match, clinching his spot in the last eight on his fifth match point when Gasquet sent a backhand long in the fourth-round match in Louis Armstrong Stadium.

The victory made Ferrer the second Spaniard after Rafa Nadal to reach at least the quarter-finals of all four grand slam events in a season since tennis turned professional in 1968.

Ferrer will meet either eighth seed Janko Tipsarevic of Serbia or 19th-seeded German Philipp Kohlschreiber in the quarter-finals.